Citizen's Festival

Picture Gallery

Photo: die arge lola / Kai Loges + Andreas Langen

Report on the Citizens’ Festival

The Robert Bosch Stiftung held its citizens’ festival on July 5 with around 6,000 visitors from in and around Stuttgart. To mark its 50th anniversary, the Foundation opened its doors and the surrounding park to the general public for the first time. On a tour of the grounds, which included some 40 stations, visitors had the opportunity to get to know the Foundation’s work. Questions such as "What’s attractive?" and "What do you associate with manga, sushi, and samurai?" served as an introduction to projects such as the German Senior Citizens’ Awards and the Youth Ambassador to Japan and provided insight into the Foundation – science, health, education, society, culture, and international understanding.

"The tour of the grounds was very well organized," said one visitor from Stuttgart. "But what really impressed me was the experts located at each station who were able to give us a visual impression of the Foundation’s work." During the citizens’ festival, more than a hundred Robert Bosch Stiftung employees answered visitors’ questions and talked about their everyday activities. In addition to exhibits, guests had the opportunity to look at the historical rooms in the 1910 residence of Robert Bosch. In the new building, Bosch Haus Heidehof, the Foundation presented some of its more modern aspects: the project You Have the Power showcased political rap and young YouTube stars, while in the theater opposite film productions were shown that had been awarded the Film Prize of the Robert Bosch Stiftung for International Cooperation.

Prize winners and Fellows Provide Insight in Person

Fellows and support recipients, who are actually the protagonists of the Foundation’s work, had the opportunity to speak on two stages. In an interview with SWR4 presenter Stefanie Czaja, Ivo Georgiev and Vanesa Nikolova discussed their time with the "Talent im Land" scholarship program for schoolchildren. Christian Strob, who worked as a cultural manager in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, talked about the challenges and success of the German and Saudi collaboration. Prominent prize winners and Foundation fellows, including Chamisso Prize winner José F. A. Oliver and Border Crossers participant Adam Jaromir, gave readings of some of their work on the literature stage.

A variety of the Foundation’s organizations were represented at the citizens’ festival, including the Institute for the History of Medicine (IGM), the Dr. Margarete Fischer Bosch Institute for Clinical Pharmacology (IKP), and Robert Bosch Hospital (RBK). Assisted by RBK doctors, visitors had the opportunity to operate on gummy bears concealed in a closed box using the latest medical procedures. In addition to minimally invasive operations, the experts provided some surprising, unfamiliar facts about the human body. "I had no idea that my nerves are so long," said one of the visitors. She’d been told that the total length of the nerves in her body is nearly six million kilometers, which is enough to wrap around the world 145 times.